I have a 1962 Dodge Polara 500 that I will be restoring soon.
I have noticed that the instrument cluster is not a 1962. It is a 1963.
The car was in Popular Hot Rodding in 1979 along with another 1962 Dodge Polara 500. Both were drag cars. They both had shots of the interiors and sure enough mine has the newer dash.
Both were original Max wedge cars according to the article and of course being a drag car the original engine was replaced by a 440. The other Polara 500 in the article has a 1962 dash.
There was no comment about the dash in the article but it was clearly different from the other 1962 Polara 500 featured in the same article.
Has anyone ever heard of this before? I am sure that if something would have happened to the dash that there were plenty of used ones that could have been obtained prior to 1979 to make it look like a 1962. It all looks original.
Is it possible that this was built late in the model year and just car came this way?
The three Mopars that were featured in the Popular Hot Rodding article were from Washington, Ohio. From left to right are a 1963 Plymouth owned by Dave Edward; the 1962 Polara 500 (my car) which was owned by Larry Burchett, and Steve White's 1962 Polara 500. The article states that the '62's were both original 413 cars.
Does anyone "out there" remember these cars?
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Can anyone help me find Larry Burchett? I'd love to talk to him about the history of the 1962! |
